As for craft smarts: they're given away by personal tools. Admittedly, it does take some smarts on the part of the interviewer to recognize whether they are poor, average, very good or outstanding tool sets.
No man treats company property better than his own tools.
As Sherlock Holmes would put it: they tell a story.
It takes a sixth sense to find a good employee, I think. If it was easy, someone else would have already hired him/her!
I really like your point about tools. I was once asked "What tools do you own?" during an interview for an engineering position and it remains the best interview question I've ever heard and one I always ask when I'm hiring. Everyone boasts about their capabilities, but is there a better check of aptitude, capabilities, and experience of an engineer or tradesman than their personal toolbox, their reaction to the question, and what particular tools they rattle off when they talk about it?
